Soooo.... can it be August 25th already? Because I'm so ready to play Guild Wars 2! I preordered too late to take part in the first two betas then was on holiday during the third, so I figured I'd just wait for the game to launch. But this past Thursday they had a stress test (and a bonus one late Friday night!) and I couldn't resist. I think I've fallen in love with this game. I was oooohing and aaaahing the whole time and having loads of fun. It's screenshot heaven as well. The game is BEAUTIFUL. I had been worried I might not be able to get over the skimpy female outfits, the way they run and how you can see their backsides a lot.. but it wasn't so bad. It was a minor annoyance which was mostly forgotten about as I was blown away by the game world. The attention to detail is incredible.

The game play is also extremely fun, but I'm going to have to get used to mobs actually being difficult. No taking on mobs 2-3 levels higher than me like I would in Lotro, because that's going to lead to death... very quickly! And no going back later to get things done when you're a higher level as you're downgraded to match the level of the area you're in. That could be troublesome for any challenging quests. I really liked the way they handled quests of new ones popping up when you entered and area and your map keeping track of them, instead of you having to manage your quest log manually. The random events were super fun. I even managed to start off a few myself by paying attention to what the NPCs were saying around me. One of the events had us catching rabbits before they ate a farmer's watermelons. So there is silly stuff and fighting. It all felt a bit chaotic but I know I'll settle in soon.

The combat is going to take getting used to. Luckily I'm used to playing on the move, but I'm not used to dodging attacks. I also chose to try out an elementalists which looks like it will take a little while to learn the skills. As with all classes, equipping a different weapon type will change your skills. But on top of that the elementalist also has 4 attunements (fire, water, air, earth) which all have new skills. Add combos on top of that... the amount is a bit mind boggling! The sheer amount of crafting materials I was picking up was intimidating. Basically there is going to be A LOT to learn. Sure I could get by with basics, but I'm the type who likes to become good at the classes I play.

Anyway, I first wanted to try a Sylvari given that I was thinking I'd prefer a human for a main, so I'd save that for later. The Sylvari are.. interesting looking. Definitely not your typical elves. They're pretty in their own way though.

Unfortunately the starter area boss was bugged and no one could get past it. Quite a few of us stood waiting around for a while:

I wasn't going to waste any more time (the stress test was only 4 hours long) so left that character and went ahead and created a human elementalist. She's quite pretty as well!

Immediately I went exploring as I was so taken with the world. It was hard to not continually take screenshots. :P Though one annoying thing is GW doesn't have a first person view which makes taking screenshots more difficult, especially when you want to take ones that look upward. It was quite amazing seeing Divinity's Reach in the background for the first time. It's one, proper huge city (I'll save pictures of the interior for later):

I ran into a random, pretty graveyard in which you could read all of the graves. I also ran into a mysterious person suggesting ghosts are there at night, so I must remember to go back one night!

Whilst exploring I decided to go through a random Asura gate, I managed to get myself to some other city. I don't recall the name and I'm too lazy to look it up. :P I didn't do much looking around it as it's also huge and I had limited time. I did run up to a view point nearby which had some goggles to put on.. which had the curious effect of changing my character into a bathing suit:

So I went for a swim. Things are just as pretty underwater as they are above it!